![Eastern Frontier, Cape of Good Hope, ca 1835](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Eastern_Frontier%2C_Cape_of_Good_Hope%2C_ca_1835.png)
Kaffraria was the descriptive name given to the southeast part of what is today the
Eastern Cape of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. Kaffraria, i.e. the land of the
Kaffirs, is no longer an official designation
(with the term ''kaffir'' now an offensive
racial slur
The following is a list of ethnic slurs or ethnophaulisms or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pejorative, or oth ...
in South Africa).
The districts now known as
King Williams Town
Qonce, formerly known as King William's Town, is a city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River. The city is about northwest of the Indian Ocean port of East London. Qonce, with a population of around ...
and
East London were annexed by the British early on, and were thus known as
British Kaffraria (later annexed to
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...
in 1865).
[
All of the remaining Xhosa territory beyond the ]Kei River
The Great Kei River is a river in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is formed by the confluence of the Black Kei River and White Kei River, northeast of Cathcart. It flows for and ends in the Great Kei Estuary at the Indian Ocean wi ...
, south of the Drakensberg
The Drakensberg (Afrikaans: Drakensberge, Zulu: uKhahlambha, Sotho: Maluti) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. The Great Escarpment reaches its greatest elevation – within t ...
Mountains and as far as the Natal
NATAL or Natal may refer to:
Places
* Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil
* Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa
** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843)
** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...
frontier, remained independent for longer and was known as Kaffraria proper.[
As a geographical term it was later used to indicate the Transkeian territories of the Cape provinces comprising the four administrative divisions of ]Transkei
Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ba ...
, Pondoland
Pondoland or Mpondoland (Xhosa: ''EmaMpondweni''), is a natural region on the South African shores of the Indian Ocean. It is located in the coastal belt of the Eastern Cape province. Its territory is the former Mpondo Kingdom of the Mpondo peop ...
, Tembuland
Thembuland, af, Temboeland, is a natural region in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Its territory is the traditional region of the abaThembu, one of the states of the Xhosa nation.
It was formerly also known as "Tamboekieland" or "Tam ...
and Griqualand East
Griqualand East (Afrikaans: ''Griekwaland-Oos''), officially known as New Griqualand ( Dutch: ''Nieuw Griqualand''), was one of four short-lived Griqua states in Southern Africa from the early 1860s until the late 1870s and was located between ...
, incorporated into Cape Colony at various periods between 1879 and 1894. They had a total area of 18,310 km²., and a population (1904) of 834,644, of whom 16,777 were whites. Excluding Pondoland — not counted prior to 1904 — the population had increased from 487,364 in 1891 to 631,887 in 1904.[
]
See also
* Ciskei
* Kaffrarian Rifles
* Transkei
Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ba ...
* Xhosa Wars
The Xhosa Wars (also known as the Cape Frontier Wars or the Kaffir Wars) were a series of nine wars (from 1779 to 1879) between the Xhosa Kingdom and the British Empire as well as Trekboers in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. T ...
References
External links
Thunder from a Clear Sky
Former subdivisions of South Africa
{{EasternCape-geo-stub